"For having such a close bond, all three were very different," said Christine Lima, a guidance counselor at Chelmsford High School who worked with all three and still has their photos in her office. "You mention the boys and everyone here knew them."

Kyle and Patrick both went to college, Kyle at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Patrick at Southern New Hampshire.

"No matter what kind of day I had, if I saw them, or if they sang me a song, their presence in this hallway every day has left a lasting impression," she said.

Those personalities were in bloom at younger ages, too.

Judith Thomas, a substitute nurse at the Center School, remembered them for their intelligence and energy, saying they'd "go bombing down the hallways" in their wheelchairs, and argue the way only siblings do.

"There's three remarkable boys," said Judith Thomas, the wife of Al Thomas, the retired principal. "And the parents have acres and acres and acres in heaven because of what they've gone through.

"I just loved them all," she added about the boys, "all three of them."

Up until just before his health quickly deteriorated, Kyle had been volunteering for half a day per week at McCarthy Middle School, where he tutored special-education students, worked in the school store, helped with deliveries and staffed the cafeteria.

"He was a great spirit to have around," said Kurt McPhee, McCarthy School principal.

Of the three boys, Matthew was diagnosed first with muscular dystrophy at age 5. Lisa and Ray had the other two boys checked and the disease was eventually discovered in Kyle and Patrick.

Between three and five of every 100,000 births results in muscular dystrophy, according to the National Institute of Health.

Muscular dystrophy slowly weakens muscles in the body, first making it difficult to walk, and later making it difficult to breathe and for the heart to work.

Surgeries helped extend the Wilkins boys' lives and give them a better quality of living, said Julie Wilkins, their aunt and a nurse in the Boston Children's Hospital intensive-care unit where the boys were regulars.

Staff, security and maintenance employees knew the Wilkins boys, she said. "They could always make you smile when you least expected it."

Lisa and Ray were careful about what they told the boys about the disease.

"We told them as they asked questions," said Lisa, a medical technologist at the Lowell General Hospital/Saints campus. "I sort of waited for cues."

As time went on, those questions became more difficult. The question inevitably came from each of them: Am I going to die?

"We tended to tell them to do the best with what you got," Lisa said. "Do the best you can. Life isn't fair."

Community fundraisers over the years helped the family install handicapped-accessible rooms, including lifts to help the boys move around, and an accessible van that could fit their wheelchairs. A long ramp was installed in the backyard, and another lift put in the pool.

"Everyone came out, one, to support them, but also to enjoy their company," their uncle, Tom Wilkins, said. People liked being around the boys because of their positive energy and outlook, he said.

"I think the boys lived a full life because they did so much in the time they were here with us," he said. "They lived a full life in a lot of ways."

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